People in Hong Kong have been increasingly aware of intellectual property rights protection over the recent years but new challenges emerge with the ever increasing penetration of the Internet, a latest survey showed.

The survey, commissioned by the Intellectual Property Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government with its results released Thursday, found 96.3 percent of the respondents considered it necessary to protect intellectual property rights.

The results also suggested that the percentage of respondents who knew IP included copyright, patents, trademarks and registered designs increased to 91.6 percent in 2008, compared with 84.7 percent in 2005. 

"Since such surveys started in 1999, public awareness of IP rights has significantly improved," Director of Intellectual Property Stephen Selby said at a press conference.

The percentage of the respondents who would often or sometimes buy pirated or counterfeit goods was also down to 8.6 percent from15 percent in 2005.

But the survey also found that challenges were emerging in the protection of intellectual property rights with the penetration of the Internet.

Only 40.7 percent of the respondents considered "buying a genuine CD and converting it to MP3 for personal use" an infringing act, although doing so could result in civil liability."

About 80 percent of the respondents agreed that it was morally wrong to download files from unauthorized websites, but 78.6 percent of the Internet users said they would not pay for legal downloading from authorized websites.

About 47 percent considered it inconvenient to buy online, the survey showed.

"While it is encouraging to see that awareness of intellectual property among Hong Kong people is increasing, we need to focus on new trends," Selby said.

The HKSAR government put out a TV announcement last year promoting the No Fakes Pledge scheme and found it effective. It will continue to put out publicity messages on TV and other media, he said.

(Source: Xinhua)